[www.sfc.edu] Professor Catherine Carpenter (Southwestern Law School), a nationally renowned criminal law scholar in the area of sex crimes and sex offender registration laws, came to St. Francis College on September 26 to talk about The Unconstitutionality of Sex Offense Laws. Watch Catherine Carpenter on Sex Offender Laws Her scholarship has been cited by numerous courts and used as a guide by attorneys; she is also one of the foremost authorities on law school curricula and accreditation. Among her important law review articles is, “Against Juvenile Sex Offender Registration.” The…
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CA: Root and Rebound’s Feb 24 Berkeley CA Family Law Clinic for people with records
Root & Rebound will be hosting its second Family Law Clinic for people with records. Root & Rebound will be offering one-on-one appointments with their reentry attorneys for any person with a criminal record who needs help with issues related to family law. Date: February 24th, 2018 Time: 10 am – 4 pm Location: 1730 Franklin St., Suite 300, Oakland, CA 94612 At this clinic, get help with family law issues like: Understanding your rights in family court, probate court, or dependency court as a person with a criminal record.…
Read MoreYoung Sex Offenders Shouldn’t Have to Register; It’s Ineffective and Hurts Everyone Around Them
Sex offender registration policies were initially developed for adults with sexual offenses, but have recently been extended to include youth with sexual offenses as well. At first glance, sex offender registration and notification (hereafter referred to as SORN) may make us feel safer, produce relief knowing that these individuals are being punished. Full Article
Read MoreRI: Letter: Leo Carroll: Base sex offender laws on facts rather than myths [opinion]
[providencejournal.com] Two decades of research regarding the effects of sex offender laws have produced no evidence that such laws achieve their stated purposes. A recent review of research on community notification and residency restriction laws in the Oxford Handbook of Sex Offences and Sex Offenders concludes that such legislation is “misinformed and simply incorrect.” These laws are knee-jerk reactions to hysteria fueled by media narratives of sensational but exceptional tragedies; they are based on myths rather than facts. The first myth is that sex offenders are strangers, when in fact…
Read MoreAs we move into 2018, are we still in a room without a view? [opinion]
[sajrt.blogspot.com] By Kieran McCartan, PhD, David Prescott, LICSW, & Alissa Ackerman, PhD. The start of a new year is often a time of reflection and hope. We think about our experiences as well as practice over the last year and learn from poor practice as well as build upon good, existing practices. Having a solid, reliable, evidence base is central to all aspects of life, personal and professional! Thinking back over the last 12 months, 2017 has been an interesting year to say the least with the common factor being…
Read MoreDear Abby Says Never Take Your Eyes Off Your Kids Till They Are Old Enough To “Fight Off a Predator”
[letgrow.org] From last week’s Dear Abby comes this pointless fear-mongering: DEAR ABBY: My husband and I disagree about how to handle taking our children shopping with us. I believe that, especially while our children are small (they are 3 and 5), the adult with them should keep them in sight at all times, or at least the majority of the time. If a child moves out of eyesight, the adult should find them within a minute. Are there guidelines on what is appropriate by age or developmental stage on this…
Read MoreDoes Social Justice Exist for Registrants? [opinion]
[blog.womenagainstregistry.org] There are dozens of definitions of Social Justice. Wikipedia defines it as the concept of fair and just relations between the individual and society. This is measured by the explicit and tacit terms for the distribution of wealth, opportunities for personal activity and social priviledges. The Business Dictionary puts a different spin on it, the fair and proper administration of laws conforming to the “natural law” that all persons, irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, possessions, race, religion, etc., are to be treated equally and without prejudice. The Center for…
Read MoreEmployment Opportunity – Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Fellow at Mitchell Hamline School of Law
https://mitchellhamline.edu/sex-offender-litigation-policy/ The Sex Offense Litigation and Policy Resource Center seeks applications for a full-time fellowship position. This is a two-year, full-time position, working directly with the director of the Center. We seek a person with superior research, writing and organizational skills, with a demonstrated interest in impact litigation, particularly involving sex offense policy, who can take charge of developing resources and initiatives supporting this litigation and related policy changes. We will accept applications until the positon is filled, but prefer applications prior to January 31, 2018. While start date is…
Read MoreGeneral Comments January 2018
Comments that are not specific to a certain post should go here, for the month of January 2018. Contributions should relate to the cause and goals of this organization and please, keep it courteous and civil.
Read MoreMedia face challenges in rush to sexual misconduct reckoning
[richmond.com] NEW YORK (AP) — Talk-show host Tavis Smiley isn’t just upset with PBS for firing him on sexual misconduct charges. He’s upset about his depiction in the media. Smiley believes that if he hadn’t talked publicly about romantic relationships with subordinates at his company, the behavior that led to his downfall, the public would make little distinction between him and those who have been accused of sexual assault or rape. Conflation of different forms of misbehavior — the idea itself is controversial — is one of the issues…
Read MoreThe Christmas I Sat Next to a Sex Offender
Last year my husband and I celebrated our first Christmas with our infant daughter. She couldn’t understand the holiday, of course, but that didn’t stop us from discussing Advent calendars, wreaths, and Jesse Trees in depth, continuing a friendly argument about Santa Claus that has been going on since our engagement. Citing our childhood experiences as rationale, we hashed out the significance of the Incarnation in the form of felt, cardboard calendars filled with chocolate, and a fat man driven around by reindeer. Christmas in my youth meant festive cooking…
Read MoreCA: Federal Court Limits Residency Restrictions to Parolees
A federal district court ruled on Dec. 22 that residency restrictions adopted by cities and counties may only be applied to registrants while on parole. “This is a significant victory for registrants and their families,” stated ACSOL Executive Director Janice Bellucci. “The Court’s decision dramatically reduces the ability of a city or a county to restrict where a registrant may live.” According to the court’s decision, the general rule is that local governments are preempted by state law from adopting laws that restrict the daily lives of registrants because state law “fully occupies” the field of…
Read MoreNE: Registering with Dignity: A Practical Guide to Reentry and Life on the Registry
[nebfacts.blogspot.com] The Sex Law and Policy Center has compiled a useful and informative guide for people forced to register as sex offenders and their loved ones. From the SLAP website: Over the past year, we’ve diligently worked to draft a reentry guidebook specifically for people on the registry and the people that love and support them as they navigate the ins and outs of registration and reentry. There is a discussion about the varying pieces of federal legislation requiring registration for sex offenses. One section details constitutional protections, while another…
Read MoreNY Daily News Needs to Shame Sex offenders Posthumously
[floridaactioncommittee.org and nydailynews.com] This week’s tragedy in Washington, when an Amtrak train derailed killing several passengers, could have stood alone as “big news” for the NY Daily News. So why did the news outlet need to run as story titled, “Third man killed in Washington state Amtrak derailment was convicted for child pornography.” Were they trying to suggest that the deaths were not a complete tragedy? Were they trying to further wound an already deceased man? Read more
Read MoreSex Registries as Modern-Day Witch Pyres
[injusticetoday.com] Perhaps the most irrefutable statement that can be made about modern day America is this: we have a penchant for putting people in cages. More than any other nation on the planet, we rely on incarceration as the fix for our social ills. America’s unprecedented prison boom spawned advocates who work tirelessly to put the police state toothpaste back into the tube. As a result, despite a steady media diet of cops and robbers police procedurals, the rhetoric on crime policy has begun to shift. The country appears…
Read More#DontLookAway: The difference between paedophiles and sex offenders
[The Star, Johannesburg, South Africa] Johannesburg – Every now and then police report busting international paedophile rings. The details are gory, adults – usually men – sharing pictures and videos of young children being abused. In one of the cases early this year, one of the worst paedophiles was sentenced to 32 life sentences and a further 170 years for, among other things, sexually abusing his girlfriend’s two-year-old daughter. Other than raping her, he used a toy dinosaur, thermometer and a sex toy to penetrate the child. The man, who…
Read MoreWill Feminism’s Past Mistakes Haunt #MeToo?
Women’s fight for the right to work free of sexual insult or molestation has been a long, long one. For nearly two centuries, in labor strikes and broadsides, speak-outs, marches, and now in social media, women have protested the ubiquity of sexual harassment and the impunity of its perpetrators. Full Article
Read MoreChildren on Sex Offender Registries at Greater Risk for Suicide Attempts, Study Suggests
A new study led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that children who were legally required to register as sex offenders were at greater risk for harm, including suicide attempts and sexual assault, compared to a group of children who engaged in harmful or illegal sexual behavior but who were not required to register. Full Article
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